


tune in

by emAvox



Category: Oxenfree
Genre: Gen, Sibling Bonding, alex is the perpetual little sis, everyone lives and everything's fine, jonas is a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5760073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emAvox/pseuds/emAvox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonas might not have experience with the whole big brothering thing, but he’s doing a damn good job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tune in

**Author's Note:**

> So I just played through this game three times in two days and I'm in love??? Shockingly, there's no content so it's time to make my own. Basically, Alex was brave through the whole game, even during the "scared" options, and I just wanted her to freak out and then be taken care of. She's done enough.

Clarissa is a bitch, but Alex doesn’t leave her there. Jonas was right in thinking that the ghosts wouldn’t be making deals if they thought that the plan to close the rift wouldn’t work. But then, Alex thinks, who knows about Jonas anyway? He disappeared in the bunker while they were listening to the tape player. He might even be dead. 

Alex really hopes that he isn’t dead. She wishes that she had listened to her reflection.

Anyway, Alex is underwater and “Clarissa” is there with her new brain buddies, Jonas is nowhere to be seen, there’s a triangular  _ hole _ in the  _ sky _ , and the ghosts are trying to make the same deal again: leave Clarissa and everyone goes free. Honestly? It’s not like Alex didn’t think about it. She’s only mostly ashamed, but who could blame her? Clarissa is a bitch and she’s out for blood- specifically, Alex’s blood- and Alex really isn’t in the mood to deal with Miss Prom Queen, I-Dated-Your-Brother-And-You’re-The-Reason-He’s-Dead. But, ignoring  _ all of that _ , Clarissa is still a fucking  _ person _ , and there’s no way in Hell that Alex is going to leave her behind on some haunted island full of naval ghosts who want to ride her body like a carousel for the rest of her life.

She’s still terrified, though.

The ghosts are speaking to her through Clarissa and they’re giving her this whole schpiel about how she’ll be stuck with them, dying over and over, and she throws out some brave line about dying for the people you love. She’s shaking as she says it. There are weird flashing lights and Clarissa’s fucking  _ glowing _ and Alex knows she’s not really underwater but she can’t look up otherwise she feels like she’s drowning (just like Michael-  _ don’t think about Michael! _ ). The ghosts are talking and it’s terrifying, like those cheesy ghost hunter shows on TV where they use the static to talk, but this is  _ real _ and it sounds more demonic than ever. So she lets the ghosts talk and she thinks of her friends (Ren and Nona will be able to go on a date, Clarissa wants a tattoo of an ampersand, Michael loved her, Jonas deserves to be happy) and the warning echoes around in her head ( _ dying over and over and over and over _ ) but she stays where she is and waits for the rift to close.

And it does.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Michael gives her advice-  _ again _ . Like, the same advice he gave her almost a year ago before- well. He talks about his plan with Clarissa, the well thought out idea of “just leaving”, something which she hadn’t exactly forgotten about, but not something that had exactly been a priority to think about every day. She forgets sometimes that Michael wasn’t the only one who thought about his and Clarissa’s relationship differently. Clarissa… she was still hurting, too.

Michael says, “I love you.”

Alex doesn’t say it back.

  
  


She just can’t.

  
  


 

 

Alex wakes up with Nona on the bench next to her, talking away. Her eyes are bleary with sleep and her limbs are still floating somewhere between complete wakefulness and the abyss of unconsciousness. She sits up slowly, her body still not fully synched up with her brain (and it reminds her of the time she was possessed-  _ don’t think about it! _ ) and people are talking to her but she isn’t processing anything. She’s in full-on sensory overload and the sun is too bright and everyone is talking at once and as she shifts upright, the weight of the radio in her pocket is reminding her of the island and she just wants everyone to stop  _ talking! _

Hallelujah, they do, but only because she’s hyperventilating and her chest feels like it’s imploding and her head is  _ ex _ ploding and- is she dying right now? Because it feels like she’s dying! The brief silence of her friends ends quickly as everyone starts clamoring (“What’s her problem?” “Shut up, Clarissa! Alex, are-” “Oh my gosh, Alex, it’s okay! It’s-”) and she can’t  **breathe** but her chest is heaving and dragging in air but it’s not registering and her heartbeat is thundering away and she struggles to stand up but her knees give out and she sinks onto the steel floor-

 

“Alex!”

 

Her head snaps up and Jonas is right there, he’s right with her, and when he sees that she’s paying attention he grabs her head between his hands and uses it to maintain eye contact and he says, “Don’t go anywhere, okay? Stay here. We’re okay.”

She nods furiously and  _ fuck _ she’s crying, and she’s so mortified right now because Clarissa is standing right there just watching her fall apart, and it really does feel like she’s falling apart. Alex feels like she’s an inch away from fracturing into a million pieces and Jonas looks stricken when he sees the tears running down her flushed cheeks and she just  _ really needs someone to hold her together right now _ so she reaches out for him.

It’s completely natural, like they’ve done it a million times before (instead of just the once outside of the bomb shelter) how Jonas grabs her and tucks her into his arms and under his chin and his arms wrap snugly around her. She’s still shaking and crying but Jonas is warm and alive and  _ real _ and even though he’s not Michael (and she doesn’t want him to be) he’s filling that hole in her life where a big brother was and she really, really appreciates it right now. Her arms are sort of crushed between them in this hug so she can’t exactly hug back. Instead she just kind of grabs fistfuls of his shirt while he holds her, one arm across her back and one hand gently pressing her head into his chest. He doesn’t care about the dirty ship’s floor or the fact that she’s, like, completely soaking his shirt. Jonas might not have experience with the whole big brothering thing, but he’s doing a damn good job.

A while later, after she’s pretty much done having a panic attack (and, God, Clarissa is going to just have a  _ field day with that _ once guard dogs Ren and Nona step down) and she’s breathing semi-normally, Alex buries her face further into Jonas’ chest and says meekly, “I’m sorry.”

He sighs, exasperated, and says, “Shut up. Not  _ everything _ is about you, y’know.”

She punches him in the arm with a shaky fist but barks out a laugh. “Fuck you, juvenile delinquent.”

Jonas untucks her head and leans away so that she can see his  _ totally, sincerely wounded _ expression. “Ouch! Low blow, Alex! Is this what family ties have been reduced to these days?”

She laughs again, face still wet, smile wobbly. “We’ve known each other for, like, twelve hours, Jonas.”

Jonas gives up his teasing and smiles back. “Oh, I don’t know,” he says. “I feel like we’ve know each other for a longer  _ time _ than that!” Silence. “Huh?  _ Huh _ ? Loop joke?” More silence. “...Well, I thought it was funny.”

Alex scoffs, but not meanly like she would have before this whole shitshow went down. “You’re so lame. Better luck next time.”

“Right.” he says. “And thanks to you, there will  _ be _ a next time.”

Clarissa chooses just then to pipe in, drawling, “Oh, yeah! Let’s all thank Alex for saving our asses after  _ she _ got us into that whole mess.”

Ren, who up until that point had been lounging against the banister by the staircase, sits up and said, “Hey-”

“God, Clarissa, just shut up! Okay?” Nona shouts from the top deck. Her head pops over the railing to peer down at her best friend. “Even  _ I’m _ getting sick of your attitude!”

Clarissa bristles. “Ex _ cuse _ me? Who-”

“You’ve been at Alex’s throat all night!” Ren yells. 

“Everyone shut up!” Jonas shouts, and they do. Clarissa walks past them to the other side of the deck, Ren goes to the top deck with Nona, and Alex and Jonas stay where they are. In her defense, Alex tries to get up, but Jonas just pulls her back down onto the floor, both of them sitting cross-legged.

“Jonas, this was- thank you for, uh. For defending me, but Clarissa was right. This whole thing was all my fault.” Alex says. She fiddles with the hem of her (Michael’s) jacket.

“ _ Hey _ .” Jonas says sharply. She looks up. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.  _ I _ went into the cave,  _ I _ had you mess with the radio. Okay? So-”

“No! That’s not fair!” she said. “You didn’t know-”  
“Yeah, Alex.” Jonas says seriously. He leans forward and his necklace, the ring, swings a little, drawing her eye. “You didn’t know.”

“...Okay, fair.” she says. “And, if it hadn’t been us, it would’ve been somebody else. Right?”

“It  _ has _ been somebody else.” Jonas says. “Maggie Adler’s friend, remember?”

Alex lets out a shaky exhale because no matter what Jonas says, the guilt that she feels right now is suffocating her.

“Alex, you were the one who saved us.” Jonas says seriously. Their eyes meet and Alex can see that he’s telling the truth.

“I can’t save anyone, Jonas.” she says quietly.

“Well,” he says, expelling a huge sigh. “You saved me. Multiple times. So we’ll start there and cross whatever bridges we come to. Okay?”

“Okay.” Alex says.

After a moment, Jonas stands and thrusts his hand down at her, wiggling his fingers as she stares. She blinks, reaches up and grabs his hand, and he hauls her up onto her feet, directly into a hug. She starts flailing immediately because he’s  _ crushing her _ and she’s squawking “JONAS!” as he laughs. He lets her go but tugs on her jacket until she follows him to sit on the bench and then throws an arm over her shoulder.

The sun has risen enough now that it’s not directly in their eyes and the water is shining, deceptively clean-looking in the morning light. The boat is rocking just enough to feel and Alex is fucking exhausted after the whole drinking thing and then the whole ghost thing and  _ then _ the whole crying thing. She’s pretty sure that Jonas can tell because he hugs her a little closer and says, “Get some sleep, Alex. I’ll wake you up when we get to the pier.”

  
So she does.

**Author's Note:**

> idk guys it's just my personal headcanon that Jonas would be very good at brothering and would also be really tactile.
> 
> also, apologies is Clarissa's character isn't quite pinned down. it's hard for me to figure her out!


End file.
